best.of.2010

My friend, Sarah, posted her year in pictures 2010.  I thought it was a fab idea, so I hopped right on board! 

January: sledding with Daddy

February: Meredith turns 5 

March: cookin' in the kitchen

April: girls' weekend at the lake with Eden

May: Claire turns 7

June: zoo time

July: memories at the lake with Eden 

August: memories at the lake with our other cousins

September: field trips are the best

 October: big buck in borrowed Accord...RIP black truck

November: my 3 favorite girls

December: obviously prego :)

Join in!  I'd love to see your year in pictures!

Christmas.gifts

Looking at these couple of pictures doesn't appear to be all that exciting. But this was, by far, one of my favorite parts of opening presents.

I had simple photo books printed for each of the girls showing their highlights from the year. Each girl had about 25-30 pictures in their books, and I think the books cost about $9 each (shipped right to the house for free!). Love it.

They opened their books and spent the next 5 minutes doing this....

The best part was how excited they were to see pictures of themselves. I tried to choose pictures that I knew they would like (even if they weren't the best pictures). I chose ones with them and their birthday cakes, pictures with cousins, pictures with Daddy's big buck, etc.

They loved them so much, and it totally brought tears to my eyes to listen to them shout things like, "I remember this!" and "I love this picture!" I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it again. They've looked through them several times since Christmas morning, and I just know that they'll love looking through them over and over.

Personalized gifts are the best!

Christmas.morning

Christmas morning/day was so wonderful. We stayed in our jammies all day (except Amelia...she had a potty accident at one point). I can't wait to share more! Hope your Christmas was great as well!!

$4.wreath

Can I brag on my hubby and his skills again? (Hunting skills, nunchuck skills, computer hacking skills...for all of you Napoleon fans out there.)

Check out my wreath! Josh just threw it together a couple of weeks ago. Why buy a wreath when you can make one out of the branches that you cut off the bottom of the Christmas tree? Isn't it great?! I'm mean, for free and all! :) (On a side note, I saw one at the grocery store on sale for $14.99, it was 1/2 the size, and it wasn't nearly as pretty as this one.)

Another view....

It needed a little somethin'-somethin', so I headed to Target and bought some red ball ornaments in the dollar spot ($1...with 5 left over), and a cute little "Let It Snow" ornament for $3. Yay! Just what it needed for a whopping $4.

Thank you, honey, for your wreath-making skills. Our front door looks so festive! :) Merry Christmas everyone!!

'tis.the.season

Well, I've had a few of you (my husband included) give me a bit of grief about not updating my blog lately...you know who you are! :)  The bottom line is this: we're always busy. It never changes. I'm NEVER bored...ever.

So, Thanksgiving looked a little something like this....

We spent a couple of days at Jill and Andrew's. It was fun...especially since Grandma bought the girls matching shirts. I think this is the first time all three of my kids have been dressed alike. I'm not the type of mom to dress my kids in the same outfit, but I humored my mom with these Christmas shirts! :)

And, she'll be happy to know that they received a compliment the other day. The cashier (who was my age and looked relatively normal) said, "That is so cute! I never dress my kids alike...I hated it when my mom did it to us. But they look adorable!" I laughed. I told her that this was the first time that they'd ever been dressed alike! They had gone carolling at co-op that day, and they were supposed to wear something Christmas-y if they had it. And so we did.

And then we have sweet little Eden...

And my 3 favorite girls in the whole wide world...

We were supposed to take Christmas pictures last Tuesday (when everyone was puking). Um...that didn't work out. So, a couple of days later, I was emptying the card on my camera. Low and behold...a fab picture of my girls! Family Christmas picture 2010? Totally crossed it off my list, uploaded these to Wal-Mart, printed 90 for our Christmas letters, and voila! pictures completed! Not quite a "family" picture like I like to do, but an adorable picture nonetheless...and it was effortless (definite plus!).

Other than that, the girls have been LOVING wrapping presents (which I love as well because I actually don't like wrapping presents). We're baking Christmas cookies this afternoon. The girls built a snowman over the weekend. Christmas music is on at our house about 24/7 these days, and we're getting ready to host a Christmas party as well as family on Christmas Eve.

This is my favorite time of the year! I have plenty more to say, but I'll save it for later. I've got some fun things coming this week, so maybe I'll have another blog post or two by Christmas! Much love to you all!!! Thanks for still reading if you're still with me! :)

crazy.days

So, Tuesday, I had an OB appointment.  I gained 8 lbs. in November which is, by far, the most I've gained all pregnancy.  My favorite part of the visit?  When my doc walked in, the first things she said was, "I see Thanksgiving was good to you!"  Love it. :)

The baby was hilarious.  We were trying to find the heartbeat, and he/she was not having any of it.  The whole time the baby was kicking and bouncing around trying to get away from the doppler.  I couldn't stop laughing!  I love my baby.

After my appointment, we headed to Steak 'n Shake to have lunch with my mom and my aunt.  Claire had been complaining of stomach pains all morning, and she wasn't sure if was going to #2 or puke. 

At the restaurant, they thankfully sat us in a booth, and Claire pretty much laid down most of the time we were there.  We had plastic bags just in case something came up!! 

While eating lunch, my mom looks down, and Amelia was pottying in her high chair.  Lovely.  Thankfully, I had packed extra clothes in my purse the day before.  Yay for being prepared!  I got that all cleaned up, and it was time to leave. 

On our way home, I made sure Claire was set up with her bags since she still wasn't feeling well.  We're about 3 minutes into our trip when Meredith starts complaining that her stomach hurts as well.  About 2 minutes later, she shouts, "I need a bag!  I need a bag!"  Totally pukes...thankfully in the bag.

Great.  I thought Claire was sick, and it turns out to be Meredith!  Have no fear.  Claire did not disappoint.  About 8 minutes later, Claire puked as well.  About 30 seconds after that, Meredith puked again.  Mind you, this was all in the van! :)

I was extremely impressed with everyone's ability to effectively hit their bags!  We had more rounds of vomit throughout the day and evening, but we all survived with minimal clean up. 

Thankfully, it was short-lived, and everyone is now back to normal.  The moral of the story is this:  Puke happens.  Potty happens.  And there is definitely a place in this world for plastic bags.  (I'm pretty sure I used about 6 of them in that one hour.)

kickin'.Jesus

Yesterday, Claire was running through the kitchen near the Christmas tree, which has a nativity scene set up nearby.  Thankfully, the nativity scene is kid-friendly...here's what happened:

I hear Claire cry out in pain from the kitchen as she ran through.
Me:  What happened?
Claire:  I just kicked baby Jesus!!

I laughed out loud for a good 8 seconds.